Abstract

This study explored characteristics of stalking and its impact to domestic violence and spousal homicide. We applied correlation analysis between the seriousness of stalking and the risk of domestic violence with means of risk assessment tools. We categorized data based on the criminal records: murder/assault, criminal record/none, domestic violence/non domestic violence. Differences were found in the level of stalking in each group. In result, staking was apparent in 42.1% of spousal homicide and domestic violence cases, and stalking was highly correlated with the total score of DAS, a domestic violence assessment tool. People who murdered their spouses had greater risk in stalking than assault cases of spouses. Domestic violence group had greater risk of stalking than non domestic violence group. Consequently, it should be considered that law enforcement agencies had to pay more attention to the sign of stalking when they investigated domestic violence cases to prevent victims from loss of life.